C class front suspension.

[dursleyman]

We have a 2001 C200K W203 that has an loud clonk from the front suspension. Its my partners car so I don't drive it all the time and it always had a little clonk on small bumps, but when I drove it last weekend I found it has got much louder.
Obviously time to get it checked out I thought, but then leaving the motorway there were some rumble strips along the lane edge which caused it to jump sideways quite alarmingly. Seems to me that something in the front suspension is either loose or broken.
Any ideas out there what it may be and how much it is likely to cost?

PS the car has done about 70,000 miles and was previously owned by MB fleet at Milton Keynes so is it safe to assume it was looked after properly?

 

[Blobcat]

Front anti roll bar bushes are a likely candidate. Not expensive, have an MB independant garage undertake the work, or buy the parts form MB and either do it yourself or find a mechanic you trust.

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

As blobcat says. If you get a main dealer to do it it's about £120 inc parts and labour. If you get an Indie to do it it's about £60. If you do it yourself it's about £12, lots of swearing and a few scraped nuckles. Unless you have a nice warm garage I'd pay someone else to do it this time of year.

 

[robbo]

Could also be your thrust arm bushes. These are a very common fault with the W203

 

[dursleyman]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will have a crawl underneath if we get any decent weather over Christmas and have a look.
I just bought a workshop manual on CD off Ebay for £2.50 so I will hopefully have a bit more knowledge about how all the bits go together in future.

 

[sv4]

Front clonking noises would be bad lower control arm ball joints. Bad antiroll bar bushes cuases squeaks, not clonks. This is a known wear and tear item with W203s.

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

Front clonking noises would be bad lower control arm ball joints. Bad antiroll bar bushes cuases squeaks, not clonks. This is a known wear and tear item with W203s.

like I said elsewhere, the anti-roll bars DO clonk. I know because I have them replaced on mine when they started clonking. It's certainly the most likely cause and also the cheapest

 

[Blobcat]

Iv'e had the lower control arms replaced and the anti-roll bar bushes at different times. The anti-roll bar bushes caused clunking, the lower control arms had no resulting noise. You could just see the tyres 'picking up' if you know what I mean (or not).

 

[television]

I will also say that the anti roll bar bushings and drop links do make clonks, often when on one lock when cornering where the different loading takes place. In order to find the fault you often need to use a tommy bar under the roll bar ends

Malcolm